Flashback
by Krystal Lily Potter
Summary: AU One-shot. You can look back all you want at the good and bad times, but you can't change anything no matter how much you'd like to. All you can do is accept it happened and move on. Ro/N, S/K, etc...


**Flashback**

A man stood behind the counter of an ice cream shop, cleaning the last of the machines after closing for the night. He always made sure to at least come in and check the store after closing to make sure that all the machines had been cleaned properly. After all, this was his business, and if his employees couldn't count on him to do his job, why should he count on them?

As it was, the machines were spotless, the tables were cleaned, and the chairs put up on top of them for the night. The floor was swept, and all of the rock memorabilia around was shining like it never had before. He had some free time that night, and he needed to make the place spotless.

There was a sudden knock on the glass door to the shop, and his head snapped up, the blond spikes flying into his eyes. He could still make out a short figure, with long blonde hair swept to one side. A smile appeared on his face as he tossed the rag into one of the buckets behind the counter and moved to open the door.

She smiled up at him broadly as he closed and locked the door behind her, not wanting anyone else to come in when the store was closed. They stared at each other for a moment before he broke the silence. "Naminé. It's…it's really good to see you again."

"It's good to see you too, Roxas," Naminé replied, nervously fiddling with the pale blue blouse that she wore beneath her white blazer and white pencil skirt. Roxas felt severely underdressed compared to her, wearing a simple t-shirt with the logo of the ice cream shop on it, and a pair of jeans.

As if catching his thoughts, she said, "I came from a meeting earlier. There wasn't much time to get changed in between, so I just came as is."

"Well, want to sit down?" he motioned towards one of the booths. "Need anything to drink? It's on the house."

For some reason, this seemed to amuse Naminé. "You sure you're allowed to do that?"

"I'm the owner," Roxas said with a shrug. "I can do what I want, when I want. Well, to a point."

"Well, in that case, I'll have a 7-Up."

Roxas raised an eyebrow as he moved behind the counter and grabbed two glasses, filling them to the brim with the fountain pop, one clear and the other dark. He expertly carried them over to the table without spilling a drop and passed her a straw. "I expected you to want mineral, fresh, mountain bottled water or something. Not pop."

This time she stared at him oddly and asked, "Why?"

"I dunno. It just seems…well…you look like a person who would want that."

Naminé grinned a bit and shook her head. "I'm not that different."

"I wouldn't know that. It's been a long time," Roxas said, tapping his fingers against the table.

She frowned a bit at this and said, "It has. I never meant to lose contact with everyone."

"Well, you did just leave without another word. None of us ever heard from you again."

"Texting is killer world wide, you know that. The same with phone calls."

"Email Naminé. I know, it's an ancient form of communication, but you could have used it," he said sarcastically. "Why just drop out of the blue now?"

She sighed and said, "I was living in Traverse, but I was offered a job at the University of Art at Radiant Garden. It was too good of an opportunity to pass by. I was coming awfully close to Twilight Town, so I thought I'd see if anyone was still here."

"I thought you were in a meeting earlier? How could you be in a meeting here if you're going to work in Radiant Garden?"

She smiled with amusement and said, "Telephone? Video chat? Take your pick."

The silence that followed was a rather awkward one. Naminé shifted a bit on her chair in the booth, stirring her 7-Up with her straw, and Roxas tapped his fingers on the table in a rhythm that sounded slightly familiar to the woman.

"I have to say," Naminé started, an amused smile passing over her features. "I never expected you to own an ice cream shop with a rock theme. You were always so sure that your band was going to go places."

Roxas shrugged and said, "I like ice cream, you know that. I never gave up my love of music, so I figured, why the hell not? You know as well as I do Naminé that things just change. Yeah, I thought we were going somewhere in high school, but—well…you know as well as the rest of us that life just takes us to different places."

Naminé sighed. "What happened?"

"We all just grew up. We all had to give up something." He looked away from her slightly, and he couldn't help but remember being younger when the world seemed like it was full of possibilities and endless hope.

It all started on his first day of high school.

**VVVVVVVV**

Fourteen-year-old Roxas looked around the large school in awe. He was so lost and confused. His older brother often told him that he had the same sense of direction as a rock. The middle school that he had come from was simple to navigate, it was just straight halls, and he could still recall getting lost there more than once. This high school though, it had twists and turns everywhere. He was doomed.

The gym, he needed to get to the gym. That was where all the freshmen were told to go so that they could be divided up into their homeroom classes. There was a large group of students heading in one direction, each looking just as nervous as he felt, so he followed them. As luck would have it, they led him to the gym.

Not really paying attention to where he was going, he ended up walking into someone and knocking them to the floor.

"Sorry," he said quickly, holding his hand out to help out the girl with dark red hair that he had knocked to the floor.

She grabbed his hand and pulled herself off of the floor. Roxas stared at her as she smoothed out her skirt and said, "It's okay." He continued to stare at she turned and walked away, obviously trying to find someone that she knew. He didn't mean to stare, but there was no doubt in his mind that she would end up being one of the popular kids. She was too pretty not to.

He found a seat and listened to the principal talk to them, welcoming them to the school. Only then did Roxas find out that the freshmen, as well as a few seniors to help guide them around, were there that day, so the other kids he had seen going in the other way were lost freshman too.

They were divided up into their homeroom classes and led around the school.

Though the teacher explained where to go, Roxas was still extremely confused. He was sure that the school was created by Mad Hatter Inc. The fact that he saw a staircase going up into a brick wall only furthered his suspicions.

"This place is insane."

Roxas looked around at the origin of the voice, and found himself staring at a boy a little bit shorter than him with spiky, dark brown hair and almost radioactive blue eyes. He didn't normally notice other guy's eyes, but it was impossible not to notice his.

Shaking his head quickly, he said, "I know. I'm going to get completely lost."

"Well, ninth grade homeroom classes usually stick together," the brunet explained. "But there are a few times they shuffle us around. My friend, Riku, is a sophomore this year and he told me all about it. I'm Sora, by the way, Sora Keys."

"Roxas Blade," he replied, slightly taken back by just how friendly and forward this boy actually was.

"Cool. Lets see your schedule. I know the school pretty well. Riku and I broke in—don't tell anyone that—in the summer to take a look around. He says that I can get lost in a straight hallway, so I needed to know where everything was ahead of time." Sora's eyes scanned the sheet. "Well, you're not in my elective classes except for music, but those rooms are on the way to mine. I can show you where they are."

"That'd be awesome," Roxas decided. Though Sora was definitely a little more talkative and outgoing than Roxas was used to (Hayner, Pence and Olette weren't nearly as chatty), he found himself liking the boy. That, and if he got lost, at least he had someone with him, even if they both had a horrible sense of direction.

As the days turned into weeks, Roxas found himself hanging out more and more with Sora and less with his old friends, probably because they weren't in any classes with him. It was surprising how much he and Sora actually had in common. They liked the same music, they both enjoyed skateboarding, and they both hated their science teacher with a passion. That, and their older brothers hated each other.

"My older brother doesn't like you," Sora said to him out of the blue one day.

"Your older brother?" Roxas repeated.

"Yeah. Vanitas Keys."

"Your Vanitas' brother?" Now that Roxas thought about it, the two looked an awful lot alike. The only differences, aside from age, were the hair and eye colours. That, and Vanitas looked a hell of a lot stronger than his younger brother.

"Yeah. Everyone judges me because of him. That's why the teachers don't like me."

"He is a bit of a psycho."

"I've had him threaten to lock me in the basement without food for a few weeks straight, so trust me, I know how bat-shit crazy he is," Sora said warily. "Anyway, your older brother is Ventus, right?"

"Yeah. He and Vanitas hate each other. Never did find out why."

"Vanitas probably thought that he looked at him the wrong way or something," Sora said with a shrug. "Anyway, you and him are pretty much identical, so Vanitas knew who you were right away and went on a spiel about how you were the antichrist or something like that. I think he was high. Or drunk. Or both. Either way, I'm pretty sure he went up to his room to plot his next murder or something, so I just chose to ignore him."

Roxas snorted with amusement. "Where are your parents?"

"Dad works all the time and is usually out of town. Mom likes margaritas a little too much. Usually passed out by eight and takes off on the weekends without notice," Sora shook his head. "Needless to say, I am well aware that my brother is probably a serial killer."

Still, despite the sheer hate that their older brothers had for each other, they stayed friends. Eventually, Roxas started hanging out with Sora's friend Riku as well. He was something different all together.

Riku was odd, because at times he was cocky, like he thought of himself as a god, there were times when he seemed like the type of person who would beat up someone for no apparent reason, and there were also times when he was just so quiet and withdrawn that Roxas had to label him emo.

There was one thing that they all had in common though, and like some clichéd movie or story, it was that they all loved music. Roxas' love for rock music was a little more obvious than Sora or Riku's, but eventually, he managed to convince them that they should form a band, just for talent shows and contests. Riku agreed because there was prize money involved, Sora agreed because it sounded fun and let him spend more time away from the house and Vanitas' knife collection. Those were his exact words.

Roxas couldn't say that he was surprised that Sora played the drums. The kid was a bit twitchy and a bit of a spazz at times, but he was actually good at it too. Sora admitted that his mother had put him into drumming lessons. Apparently she liked the sound of a drum when she had her one too many margaritas. Sora agreed to go because it helped with his reflexes so he could keep away from his brother on a second's notice.

Riku, as sheer luck, fate, coincidence, or whatever would have it, played bass. He said it was to annoy his father who thought music, and any form of art, was a waste of time.

Roxas decided that he had the most functional family out of all of his friends, and his parents let him run around and do whatever he wanted to do. He was sure that Sora won for the most insane family and probably should have been put in a foster home.

So that was that. They decided to form a band. It was easier said than done, and though they did a few covers at first, they quickly decided that they needed to write at least a few of their own songs.

Though a lot of the time they spent together felt more like working, Roxas was sure that those were the best days of his life.

**VVVVVVVV**

Naminé smiled a bit before saying, "You know, Kairi told us about how she ran into a weird boy with spiky hair who wouldn't stop staring at her the first day. Ironic that you ran into her of all people, isn't it?"

"It would have been weirder if it was you," he replied with a shrug. "Looking back though, it wasn't really all that strange. I mean, Kairi didn't even come into our lives until half way through sophomore year."

At Roxas' frown, Naminé tilted her head slightly and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Just thinking," he said slowly. "You know, as horrible as it is to say, I think that if Kairi didn't come along, we would have gone places with our music."

"That is a horrible thing to say," Naminé agreed. "Why?"

"Well, aside from school work, that was what we focused on. Then Kairi came along. I mean I know something like it was bound to happen sooner or later. We were teenagers! But Riku had more girlfriends than he could keep track of. It never seemed to distract him any."

"That's probably why he went through more girlfriends than he could keep track of," Naminé said. "Well, and he had the rep for being a playboy."

Roxas chuckled a bit and said, "Yeah. You know, I'll be honest, I really thought at one point of time that we would make it. If anything, I was always worried about Riku backing out. It never actually happened like that though."

"Well, isn't it a good thing it happened like it did?" she asked curiously, fiddling with the golden, star necklace around her neck. "We wouldn't have met otherwise."

He smiled slightly. "Yeah, I guess."

**VVVVVVVV**

"Where the hell is he?"

Riku glanced up at Roxas from his bass. He raised an eyebrow and looked over at the clock. Shaking his head slightly, he said, "Sora's late for everything, you know that."

"Yeah, but usually not half an hour!" Roxas cried out, waving his arms around dramatically. "At least not for practice! It's not just this time! Every time for the past few weeks!"

"Maybe his clock's wrong? I don't know. Seriously Roxas, calm down," Riku said.

"Haven't you ever noticed that his excuses are always horrible too? What if he's into some weird drugs or something? His brother is."

"Pretty sure we'd notice…" Riku trailed off, thinking about his friend for a moment. "Er—maybe we wouldn't, but I don't think so. Sora's a better guy that either of us are. He's nothing like his brother. I mean, look at your anger issues."

"Look at your man-whoreness," Roxas grumbled back. "I swear to god if he doesn't—"

The blond was cut off at the door to his basement flew open and Sora stumbled into the room. He quickly closed the door behind him, panting a bit as he caught his breath.

"Sorry," he managed to get out. "Lost track of time. Detention."

"Since when do you get detention?" Roxas asked him dryly.

"Misunderstanding," Sora said with a shrug. "Besides, you know most teachers hate me on principal. Thank you Vanitas."

"You're late a lot now," Roxas pushed.

"Stop it," Riku growled at him quickly. "We have this same conversation every day."

The blond glowered at his friends for a moment before crossing his arms in front of him and saying, "Don't be late on Friday for the battle of the bands."

"Wow, you really think that I'd let you down that much just because I've been late to a few practices?" Sora rolled his eyes. "Don't worry Rox. I'll be there."

"On time?"

"On time."

Roxas took the competitions that they entered seriously. Sure, all three of them wanted to win, but, to put it simply, Sora and Riku often joked that Roxas would marry his guitar if it was legal. For Riku, it was a matter of pride. They had won almost all of the competitions that they entered, and he'd be damned if some grease-sack or douche bag took their winning streak from them. For Sora, it seemed like the whole thing was just for fun, plus this way some people might notice if he ever went missing if Vanitas ever finally went off the deep end.

The brunet had shown up on time that night, something Riku was thankful for because it meant that he didn't have to hear Roxas rant. Both of Sora's friends were a little surprised at how much effort he put into his performance that night, including a drum solo. They had never seen him play so well before.

"We've got this," Roxas said happily. "We all did awesome. Seriously Sora, what's up? I've never seen you so…"

"Focused?" Riku suggested. "You normally have the attention span of a squirrel on speed."

Sora's cheeks turned pink and he shrugged slightly, glancing out at the crowd as they watched the last group perform. His eyes seemed to constantly drift back to one spot, but it was too dark for Riku or Roxas to see what he was looking at.

They waited in silence. Roxas and Riku were both confident that they'd win, and Sora was off in his own little world.

"Why do I feel anxious every time we do this?" Roxas asked.

Though it was a rhetorical question, Riku still chose to answer. "Because you're an emotional girl?"

"Screw you."

"Not interested."

They bantered back and fourth, not realizing that there was cheering going on and everyone was staring at them.

Sora sighed and said, "Guys?"

They continued to argue.

"Guys?"

They still ignored him.

"They just announced that they were hiring a stripper for the winning group."

Instantly, both of his friends turned their attention back to him. Sora shook his head and said, "They announced we won a minute ago."

"Oh." The crowd laughed and Sora shot his friends an amused look. They both seemed thoroughly embarrassed, but Sora seemed very relieved that he wasn't the one making a fool of himself this time.

Roxas saw Sora's eyes darting out to the crowd and tried to see who he was looking at, but there were just too many people out there.

They gathered up their prize money, talked to a few people, fought off a few fan-girls, and then Riku and Roxas went to grab their instruments. Sora had been using the drum set that was at the school, his own set was far too large to shove into Riku's small car.

"Where'd he go?" Roxas asked Riku, looking around for their absent brown-haired friend.

Riku shrugged. "Maybe he's waiting by the car? Seemed a little fidgety today." Roxas was glad that he wasn't the only one who noticed how oddly his friend was behaving, though fidgety was a word often associated with Sora anyway.

They walked out of the building and towards the car, hoping that Sora was waiting out there so they wouldn't have to search for him if he got lost somewhere in the building. It had happened before, even though they had been in the high school for over a year and a half.

Whatever Riku and Roxas were expecting, it wasn't what they ended up seeing. No way did they expect to walk outside towards Riku's car only to see their brunet friend basically making out with a redheaded girl in a short, pink dress that was covered in zippers.

"Ummm…" Roxas said loudly, not really sure what to say. The sound was enough to catch the embracing couple's attention. They broke away from each other and looked around at them. Only then did Roxas recognize who she was, which was stupid in retrospect, because he only knew one girl with that hair colour.

Never in a million years did he expect to see happy, friendly, skittish Sora kissing the silent, insanely attractive, stuck-up Kairi Hart.

At that moment though, she didn't seem stuck-up like the rumours made her out to be. If anything, she looked shy and embarrassed as she shifted closer to Sora and farther away from their prying eyes.

"Hi," Sora finally blurted out to his friends. "Um, this is Kairi."

"We know," Roxas and Riku said together. A quick glance at Riku clearly said that the older boy was now far more impressed than shocked. Both Roxas and Sora knew that Riku had hit on her before, but she had just ignored him.

"When did this happen?" Riku asked, raising a silver eyebrow and grinning impishly, not even bothering to hide the fact that he was checking out Kairi.

Sora notices this and shuffled a bit so that he was standing in front of Kairi a little more and said, "A few weeks ago."

Kairi coughed.

"Okay, two months tomorrow," he corrected himself, rolling his eyes.

"Wait, two months?" Roxas asked, clearly surprised. "You've been hiding this from us for two months?"

Sora glanced down at Kairi, who shrugged at him and he sighed and gave his friends a rather sheepish smile. "We just wanted to keep it quiet for a while."

Roxas figured that they had done an excellent job of making sure no one knew, because on Monday, the entire school seemed to know that they were dating. He figured that this was courtesy of Riku.

**VVVVVVVV**

"You really can't blame Sora though, can you?" Naminé asked with a shrug.

"Well, no," Roxas admitted. "Still, his relationship with Kairi did put a gap in our band. We didn't win as many competitions after that because he was always so focused on her."

"You say it like it's a bad thing. They're still together, right?"

Roxas frown at her and asked, "You don't know?"

"I never really talked to anyone from high school after I left. You know that. That includes Kairi, and I never really talked to Sora, he was just my friend's boyfriend."

"Sora and Kairi got hitched during university," Roxas explained with a shrug. "Though none of their parents were thrilled. Not because they didn't want them to be together (he had seen her about to question that), but because they thought that they were too young. They graduated from university, moved to Destiny Islands, and less than a year later, Kairi was knocked up. They have two kids already, and Kairi's pregnant again."

"Really, how far along?"

"Almost at the end, I think," Roxas said after a little thought. "They're having twins though."

"Four children? Well, Kairi did always want a big family."

"Sora too. Kairi owns a little jewelry shop. I think she only has two employees and does most of the work herself. Sora complained about her working herself too hard the last I talked to him. He's a bit of a worrywart when it comes to his family. I just think that he doesn't want his kids to have the same kind of life he did. You know, worrying about being murdered by their older brother?"

Naminé laughed a bit and said, "Sounds like him. He was so easy going except for when it came to Kairi getting hurt or being sad. He even joked about the fact that he was basically a neglected child and, looking back, probably should have been taken from that home. Still, a sigh of discomfort from her and he was all serious and worried. He was so whipped. I suppose that hasn't changed?"

Roxas chuckled and said, "Not at all. They're both still really happy, even though Sora's at the point where he's freaking out about the new babies coming."

"What does he do anyway? With four kids, I can't see him being a stay-home dad," Naminé asked curiously, fiddling with the straw of her empty drink.

"Nah, he's an architect." Roxas saw the look of disbelief on her face. "Yeah, I know he said that he'd never ever have the same job as his father, but there you go."

"Wow, that's just…it's amazing how so many things can change, but some things still stay the same."

"No kidding," Roxas agreed. "Still, sometimes I think back and wonder what if we had gotten our band some place. In the long run, I can't really blame Sora for choosing Kairi though."

"Well, if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have met," Naminé said with a grin.

Roxas laughed. "Oh god, I will never, ever forget that."

**VVVVVVVV**

Twilight Town was a fairly big place, but most of it was tall, brick buildings and businesses. While they was plenty to do, many of the teenagers preferred to drive the half an hour out of town to the large, secluded, drive in theatre. Many went because it was much cheaper than the theatres in town, but admittedly many went to have an excuse, and an alibi to give their parents, for staying in their cars with their girlfriend or boyfriend in a dark, secluded place for a few hours. The movies were always double shows, so they could be gone for hours and no one would really think much about it.

Roxas knew that many people actually went to the drive-in to watch the movies. While he and his friends often joked and goofed around, flirting with girls, drinking some things that they probably shouldn't, and so on, he knew that there were 'responsible adults' around as well. The people who actually wanted to watch the movie tended to park closer to the screen so that they wouldn't have to see the people that weren't watching the movies.

Sora was driving that day in his new car. It wasn't actually a brand new car, but it was nice. Sora claimed that it was his father trying to make up for not really being home that much. Roxas suggested that maybe his dad was saving it for a while, but didn't need to get Vanitas one since he got a lot of money in very questionable ways. Riku didn't care, because it meant that he didn't have to taxi everyone everywhere.

The entire drive though, Sora was muttering about how they should have brought another car. Neither of his friends could comprehend why this was an issue (aside from the fact that they were fighting over shotgun so much that Sora forced both of them to go in the back seat) until they got there and, a few minutes later, a sleek, dark red car pulled up next to them. Kairi's family had money, and it was easy to tell.

Roxas and Riku had both gotten to know the redhead quite well. After all, she had Sora had been dating for almost a year now, but this was the first time that they really met any of her friends, surprisingly. There was the excitable Selphie, the shy but at the same time confident Xion, the brains of the group, Olette (this surprised Roxas, who had been friends with her in middle school), a hyper girl named Rikku, and the last was a blonde girl who seemed intent on becoming as small and unnoticeable as possible.

She had instantly caught Roxas' attention, because she was the only one who didn't bombard him with a billion questions before fawning over Riku, something he seemed to enjoy immensely. Neither Sora, nor Kairi, introduced anyone.

Roxas just assumed that they had gone through some sort of withdrawal from being away from each other for a week. It was pathetic in his mind. Either way, it was painfully obvious that they weren't going to be watching the movie.

There were only so many seats inside of Kairi's car, so someone was going to have to stay in the same vehicle as the couple. Now Roxas knew why Sora thought they should have brought another car.

As fate would have it, Roxas and the quiet girl ended up in the front seats of Sora's car while the couple was in the back.

Roxas purposely ignored his friends by turning the sound up, but then he turned his attention to the blonde. He squinted at her a bit, taking in her blonde hair, blue eyes, and her white dress before it suddenly clicked in his mind. He had seen her before.

"You're that girl in my art class," he said suddenly, immensely proud of himself for remembering. She glanced at him and he added, "The quiet girl who is an amazing artists! Naminé, right?"

Naminé blushed a little bit and said, "Yeah."

He caught the way she was eyeing him cautiously and couldn't help but be confused. "Um…I'm not going to bite or anything."

"Oh, it's just that…" she trailed off, not sure if she should continue her sentence or not.

"Just what?" he pushed.

"I've always known you to be the kind of emo guy who only focuses on his band and is kind of an asshole otherwise," she blurted out quickly before putting her hands up. "Just what I heard."

Roxas blinked at this, not exactly sure how to respond to that. She quickly turned her attention back to the movie, and he did the same, but he kept looking at her out of the corner of his eye. He hadn't known that people looked at him like that. Then again, he had always thought that Kairi was a huge, self-centered bitch before he actually got to know her and found out that she was just quiet and minded her own business.

He quickly steered his thoughts away from Kairi, not wanting to think about what was possibly going on in the backseat.

Surprisingly, it was Naminé who snapped first. She got out of the car, went over to Kairi's car and hit the automatic trunk lock on the keychain before going back and pulling out a bunch of pillows and blankets. With her arms full, she came back and threw them in the front seat before getting in. She tossed a big quilt back and said, "Keep that on, we don't need to see anything." Then she built a wall between the front and back seats by stacking pillows around the seats, giving two to Roxas to put up behind his head and on his side.

Once they were completely encased in pillows and blankets, Naminé turned back to the screen as if nothing had happened.

Roxas continued to stare at her in wonder until she looked at him and asked, "What?"

"What the hell was that? Not that I don't appreciate it…"

Naminé sighed. "I really don't need to see whatever they're doing back there…again."

"Again?"

"Obviously you don't notice, but they're not exactly subtle with the places they choose to try and bang each other."

Roxas snorted with laughter, not sure if he was laughing at what she said, or the way she described it. He ended up laughing so hard that his sides hurt, and he was unable to stop himself from calling out, "Way to go Sora!" The muffled 'shut up Roxas' that he got back only made him laugh harder.

Naminé stared at him as if he had grown a second head at first, but his laughter was contagious. She started to giggle before ending up laughing hysterically.

"I'm Roxas," he said, holding out his hand to Naminé, who looked at him in confusion. "I figure we can redo our pretty awkward meeting."

She grinned. "I'd like that. I'm Naminé."

"It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too. I guess the rumours were wrong."

Roxas laughed at this. "Thanks."

They heard, and felt, a bang from the back seat and heard some panicking and apologizing. Neither knew what the hell had happened, and neither was going to look. Instead they just glanced at each other and laughed hysterically again. He quickly found out that Naminé always seemed to be ready to poke fun at her best friend.

Later on, after getting to know Naminé more, Roxas decided that it was worth being stuck in the same car as Sora and Kairi.

**VVVVVVVV**

Roxas almost felt like he was back in that car, laughing with Naminé like they had just met. He wasn't sure if, in retrospect, the fact that his friendship with the blonde girl had started with them making fun of their friends, was a good thing or not, but he wouldn't have changed it for the world.

"Well," Naminé said, amusement passing over her features. "At least we didn't have to sit in the car with them actually having sex."

"Only because Kairi slipped and kneed Sora," Roxas replied, wincing in empathy. "I still say that something was watching out for our mental stability that night."

"I don't know about that," Naminé said dryly. "After that, I'm pretty sure I walked in on more couples having sex than I'd care to admit. It had to be more than anyone else."

Roxas laughed a bit. "Well Riku always turned up everywhere with the most random girls ever."

"Don't remind me," she shook her head. "Seriously, don't."

"Well, bonus side to our friends' inability to abstain was that we got to spend more time with each other."

Naminé smiled a bit at this. "That's true. I think that if it didn't happen that way, you would have never gotten the guts to ask me out."

"I would have!" He felt a little insulted at the thought, but it wavered a bit when he saw the skeptical look on her face. Okay, maybe he wouldn't have, but that wasn't the point! He had still done it. He could easily remember that day. It was one of those ones that would probably stick with him forever.

**VVVVVVVV**

Roxas shut his flip-phone, amusement passing over his face. His friends often said that he had a sadistic sense of humour, but he replied that it was a natural defense to getting put in awkward positions. Once such incident had just happened over the phone.

He had been attempting to get a hold of Sora to see if his friend wanted to come over and work on some songs. It had been nearly two weeks since they had all gotten together, even though it was summer, and that was far too long.

Sora, of course, had other plans already. Actually, Roxas was nearly positive that he had interrupted his 'plans' when he called. He had quickly figured out what was going on from the way Sora stumbled over answers and tried to get him to hang up as quickly as possible, saying that he thought it was his mother calling and that was why he answered. That, and he could hear Kairi trying to be quiet in the background. Instead of getting grossed out though, he had done the next natural thing: he had made fun of his friend, trying to keep him on the phone as long as possible.

Eventually Sora just hung up on him, giving up all pretenses of being polite.

Riku was working that day, as were all of the others he hung out with in his free time. Roxas couldn't say that this was really an uncommon thing. He had a job too, but it seemed like every time he was off, everyone else was busy, or they were off with their boyfriend or girlfriend. He couldn't really blame them though, but he had always kind of thought that they'd be 'bros before hoes'. He was sure if Sora heard that in any sort of reference to Kairi, he'd kick his ass. Riku would probably agree that he hung out with were hoes.

Roxas dialed a very familiar number and waited for a moment until the person on the other side picked up. "Hi Roxas!"

"How did you know it was me?"

He could practically see Naminé rolling her eyes before answering, "Oh I don't know, caller display?"

"Oh, right." He had the decency to sound a little embarrassed. "Anyway, you busy today?"

"When am I ever busy?" she replied. Naminé didn't have a job like the rest of them. Something to do with her parents or something like that. Roxas wasn't exactly sure. He just knew that she was often just as bored as he was.

"Good point," he replied with a laugh. "Want to go out later? We can go to eat or to the movies or something like that."

"Why Roxas," Naminé teased, "are you asking me out on a date?"

"Yup," he answered, without really thinking about it. Suddenly he felt panic flash through him as his brain caught up to why his mouth spewed out.

There was a long silence before she finally said, "Okay. Give me an hour."

"Okay," he replied faintly, and vaguely recalled saying goodbye to her before hanging up. He couldn't believe what he had just done. It wasn't that he didn't like Naminé, in fact, he liked her a lot more than he actually let on, he just didn't mean to blurt it out like that. Their friends all teased them, saying that they were actually dating anyway, they were just in denial about it. He could see the logic behind their thinking though, even if he did indeed want to deny it.

Suddenly it hit him, he was actually going on an official date with Naminé. That was completely different from just hanging out with her. He didn't have the first clue what to do. He would have called to ask Sora (he was pretty sure that a guy who was dating the same girl for a year and a half and still going strong could give him good advice), but that definitely wasn't an option.

Instead, in his panicked state, he went with option number two: Ventus.

Ventus was in university now, but he was home for the summer vacation to work. He was off that day too, much to Roxas relief. Though, the younger of the two wasn't sure it was such a good idea afterwards. Ventus did this thing where he was a bright, smiley and happy (like Sora), but he could subtly slip in sarcasm, and eventually ended up making the person he was talking to feel like an idiot while questioning their sexuality.

Or maybe that was just Roxas he did that too. He couldn't be sure. All he knew is that he was on his way to Naminé's in Ventus' car (he was pretty sure that he had sold his soul to his brother for that, but again, he couldn't be sure). Needless to say, the entire ordeal had been very awkward for him.

Roxas thought about it. They had sat in the movies just watching the movie, and when they ate, they hadn't even made eye contact and didn't really talk. That was literally all that happened. There was no massive fail to the whole thing, but it definitely wasn't a winning first date.

They were sitting on Naminé's porch, the awkward silence still around them. Neither was sure about what to say or do.

Roxas let out a depressed sigh. It wasn't going too well, and he really liked Naminé. He didn't want to mess it up already. Naminé was quiet, she was shy, he knew that he'd have to be the one to make the first move, beyond blurting out that they were going on a date. He needed to be bold.

Hell, if clumsy Sora, if all people, could get a girlfriend, then he could too.

"Naminé?"

She looked at him hopefully.

Roxas stared back at her for a moment before suddenly leaning forward and kissing her on the lips.

For a moment, he thought he had done the wrong thing when she tensed up, but then she leaned into the kiss. If he wasn't busy, he would have done a happy dance.

**VVVVVVVV**

"It was a smooth move!" Roxas defended at Naminé's laughter.

"I just found it funny because, really, you always called Sora skittish, yet you were the one who always seemed to be bumbling and jumping into things." She saw Roxas' pout and shook her head. "Well, it was still my first kiss, so I'll never forget it. Though it took you another couple days to actually ask me out."

"Hey, it's not easy! All you girls just sit around and wait for us to make a move."

"Xion asked Riku out in high school," Naminé pointed out. Roxas frowned a bit. "Sorry, I didn't mean—"

"No, I know," he answered quickly. "Want another drink? I can make a milkshake or something? Do you still like strawberry ones?"

"Actually, I'm allergic to strawberries now," she answered with a shrug. "You know, allergies turn around every seven or so years. I've grown fond of vanilla ones though."

"That sucks. You loved strawberries. Come sit at the counter so we can keep talking while I make them."

Naminé leaned over the counter, watching him with interest. It was kind of amusing that he owned an ice cream shop of all things. He loved ice cream as much as he loved music.

"Remember grade twelve?" she asked suddenly.

Roxas snorted and asked, "Which part? That entire year was just a crazy. I'd never go back to that. I mean, it was even crazy for Riku, and he wasn't in school! He went through three girlfriends before dating Xion."

"Yeah, that worked out well. Or Kairi and her pregnancy scare?"

"Well, she wasn't pregnant," Roxas reminded her. "I wasn't named godfather as a teenager."

"You're a godfather?"

"Yup," he answered proudly. "Their son is my godson."

"It was still a dramatic time to live through," Naminé said with a sigh.

"I was a pretty big jerk then, wasn't I?"

"Maybe. I can't really remember. It was quite a while ago. We all had difficult decisions to make that year."

**VVVVVVVV**

Roxas suddenly stopped playing his guitar and turned around, glaring at Sora. Riku too stopped playing, and glanced between his two friends. Sora didn't even notice that they had stopped playing, hitting his drums in a beat that vaguely resembled one of their songs. The problem was, was that it was a completely different song.

"Sora!"

The brunet jumped, his drumsticks clattering to the floor. He blinked at his friend as if he didn't comprehend what was going on.

Roxas groaned and asked, "Really man? We have work to do. We need to be ready for the talent show next week and—"

"Sorry, I'm just a little distracted," Sora answered with a sigh.

"A little? Just a little? How about a lot!" Roxas growled. "And it's not just today, it's been like this for the last few weeks! You and Kairi. And Riku, what about you?"

"What's your problem?" Sora suddenly growled at Roxas, standing up quickly. "We have lives beyond playing this stupid music."

"It's stupid now?" the blond asked sharply. "That's what you think?"

"You take this all way to serious," the brunet snapped. "I'm sorry we can't all just drop every little thing that happens for your goddamn music."

Riku suddenly spoke before Roxas could, and asked, "Is Kairi pregnant?"

"W—what?" Sora stuttered. "What gives you that idea?"

"Just the way you guys have been acting," Riku said. "You know?"

Roxas watched Sora closely as he sighed and said, "She took probably about twenty tests so far and they've all come back negative, but she still hasn't got her…you know. She went to the doctor's yesterday to get blood work done. She's nearly positive that she's not pregnant, but that means something else could be wrong with her."

"Don't girls miss their periods sometimes?"

"It's actually not a common thing, Roxas," Sora growled at him. "Maybe if you actually spent time with Naminé and not your guitar, you'd know that."

Roxas was about to say something else when Riku said, "Selphie's pregnant."

Both of them stared at him and Sora asked, "Selphie? As in your ex-girlfriend Selphie? Kairi's friend?"

"Four months."

"Four months, but didn't you break up with her three—oh," Sora's eyes widened with realization.

"Oh," Riku repeated with a nod.

"Aren't you dating Xion now?" Roxas asked him unsurely. "How's she taking that? Are you sure it's yours?"

"Oh, it's mine," Riku admitted. "I didn't tell Xion yet, and I'm not going back to Selphie. I'll support the kid, help take care of it, but I'm not going back. She just told me earlier."

"Holy crap man," Sora said slowly. "I mean—I freaked out a bit when Kairi thought she might be, but to actually know—wow."

Roxas felt a little bad for growling at Sora when Riku was going through something even worse. He sighed and shook his head.

Two days later he stumbled upon Xion and Riku yelling at each other. He had no doubt that their band was about to be disbanded.

**VVVVVVVV**

"Riku's a police officer now," Roxas blurted out.

"Oh wow, really?" Naminé asked, surprise passing over her features. "I never saw that coming."

"Yeah, he married some girl—I can't remember her name. I don't actually talk to him anymore, I just know through Sora. His wife is some high-powered lawyer or something though."

"Power couple all right," Namine whistled. "How's his daughter? Kaze?"

"Sora says she's a lot like Riku, meaning Selphie drives her nuts," Roxas said, a grin passing over his features.

There was a heavy pause before Roxas leaned forward and asked, "Why did you leave Naminé?"

"You know why."

"Well I know why you went to school, but why didn't you tell us until the last minute, and why didn't you even try to keep in contact with any of us?"

"I don't know," she said honestly. "I told you that I would stay, Roxas. I told you that if you asked, I would. You didn't. That hurt a bit. Throwing myself into art made that go away."

Roxas shook his head slightly and said, "Sometimes I feel like—I dunno."

"What?"

He looked at her hesitantly and said, "Sometimes I wonder what life would have been like if I had tried to stop you from going. I—I dunno. I guess…you're the one that got away."

**VVVVVVVV**

Roxas could remember when Naminé received her acceptance letter into the top school of her choice. She had opened the letter curiously, stared at it with wide eyes, before shrieking happily and throwing herself on Roxas. He had enjoyed the make out session that followed, that was a given, but he was still confused.

He had been so proud of her when he found out that she was accepted into her top choice for university. He was more than thrilled for his girlfriend. He remembered her chattering to Kairi about it happily, and he remembered her saying something about Traverse Town.

That had confused him beyond anything else. Traverse Town was fairly far away. It was basically as far from Twilight Town as they could go. It was a fact that both of them seemed to ignore until it was finally time for her to leave.

Standing in the airport, Roxas finally felt the anger and sadness passing through him. She was leaving, he couldn't be in denial about it anymore. She hadn't talked to him about it or anything. He felt more than a bit of anger, but at the same time, he felt guilty because he had never brought it up either.

Riku wasn't there to bid Naminé goodbye. He was busy with his daughter that weekend because Selphie was off partying. He and little Kaze had said goodbye to her the night before though. All their clothes friends had managed to congregate together though.

Kairi was crying, hugging Naminé tightly. Neither could get out a complete sentence as they tried to break each other's ribs, or at least, that's what it looked like to him.

Sora approached her and gave her a quick hug before taking a sobbing Kairi into his arms and smiling at her.

"Take care of her Sora," Naminé said with a smile. "I think she'd be hopeless without you."

Sora laughed and Kairi glared at her playfully, and said, "I will. Good luck."

"Thanks," she replied. Looking around, she came face to face with Xion. "Everything will turn out fine with that guy you like. Sure you don't want to tell me who it is?"

"Nope," the raven-haired girl laughed. She squeezed her tightly, laughing happily.

Naminé said goodbye to her family members that were there before finally turning to Roxas, who had been silent the entire time.

"Roxas?"

"Yeah Nam?"

They stared at each other before suddenly hugging him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and said, "I hope you have fun."

She let out a choked sob and said, "If you don't want me to go, I won't."

Roxas jerked away from her quickly, staring into her pale eyes with surprise. He looked at her intently before turning his head. His eyes landed on Sora and Kairi, side by side watching them. He knew that Sora would run after Kairi. Sora wouldn't have let her leave or would run after her. He wanted to do that, to keep her with him, but he couldn't do it and he couldn't go with her. He hugged her tightly again and said, "I'll miss you."

Naminé nodded hesitantly and said, "Roxas I—I do love you, but maybe, long distance is so hard and—"

"Yeah, I know."

"We need to break up."

"I know Nami."

There were tears in her eyes as she hugged him again before he drew back and gave her a kiss on the lips. They stood like that for a moment before he let her go, hearing her gate number being called.

Roxas held Naminé's hand tightly before slowly letting her hand slip away from his. He watched as she walked away, only look back once.

**VVVVVVVV**

Naminé and Roxas sat across from each other, staring silently. Suddenly, a loud tone broke the silence, causing both of them to jump. Naminé quickly reached into her purse, grabbing her touch screen phone and answering it.

"Hello? Oh—yes. Yes I—really? Well, okay I guess I can get there. Great I—" She pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it with a look of distaste. "Some people just love to talk."

"Have to go?" Roxas asked her.

"Yeah, it's late but the boss wants me there bright and early tomorrow."

There was a silence between one another again and she whispered, "Thank you for meeting up with me. I mean it. It's just—I dunno. It's my own fault, but I really missed you."

Roxas smiled at her and said, "I missed you too." He walked around the counter after cleaning their glasses and setting them back in the counter. Making sure that he had his keys, Roxas opened the door and let her out first, locking it behind him.

Roxas couldn't help but find her car nicer than his. It just proved that they were in two completely different worlds from one-another.

This time, Roxas pulled her into a hug and she wrapped her hands around his waist. They stood like that for a moment before she whispered, "You were the one that got away too. I feel so stupid for walking away from you now and not even trying."

He let her go, smiling at her weakly as she moved to her car. He was watching her leave all over again. She looked back over at him, rolling down her window and said, "I'll try to send emails or something this time."

He chuckled and said, "You better."

"Bye Roxas."

"Goodbye Naminé."

She smiled at him a bit before rolling up her window, starting her car and driving away.

He sighed and got in his own car, driving back towards his home. He managed to enter the house silently and headed directly towards one specific object.

It was a thick, old book that he hadn't looked at in a very long time. He wiped some of the dust off of it and flipped open, grinning a bit at the first picture. It was him and Sora on the first day of high school, big grins, awkward limbs, and eager faces. He flipped through the pictures, stopping on one of him, Sora and Riku on stage. There was one of Sora and Kairi together, at a dance, one of him and Naminé sitting side by side, and so many more. It had been forever since he had seen any of those pictures.

Setting the book down, he picked up the object that was leaning on the edge of the bookshelf. It was his old guitar that he left out for old times sake. It calmed him down and made him feel nostalgic.

He strummed the guitar, soft notes coming out before he heard some footprints.

"Daddy, why you playing guitar without me?" Roxas looked around at the small boy in front of him.

Roxas smiled at his son and said, "Why are you awake? You were supposed to be in bed an hour ago."

"I was waiting for you. Whatcha looking at?"

"Just some old friends," Roxas said. "Really though, back to bed." The boy pouted. "I'll be up in a minute." This seemed to appease the young boy who happily skipped up the stairs.

A small giggle caught his attention and he caught sight of his wife leaning against the doorframe, having watched the scene with amusement in her deep blue eyes. She crossed the room and picked up the album, looking at some of the photos within as she pushed her black hair out of her eyes.

"Good memories," Xion said with a grin, her eyes turning to him. "How'd your meeting with Naminé go?"

Roxas shrugged and said, "A lot of reminiscing."

"That's natural, I guess."

"Yeah. It was weird. She's so...different. Like high maintenance different."

Xion shrugged slightly and said, "Things change. You can always ask yourself what if, but it won't change anything. Besides, everything turned out perfect." She let out a loud yawn. "I'm going to get some sleep. I hope you cleaned up the shop?"

"Spotless."

She smiled. "Good." Xion leaned down and gave Roxas a quick kiss before heading back up the stairs.

Roxas sighed and looked at the photo album that she had placed on his lap. He flipped to a page with all of his old friends in it and whispered, "Things turned out alright, but they didn't turn out perfect." He ran a finger over the image of Naminé.

He closed the book and put it back on the shelf, leaning his guitar on it. He needed to make sure his son was back in bed.

**VVVVVVVV**

**Author's Note**

I wanted to try something a bit different. I intended on focusing more of Roxas and Naminé, but a ton of Sora and Kairi just slipped in and I was like 'eff it, lets go with it'.

Also see, you can have Vanitas in another universe where he's 'normal'…he's just a complete psychopath. No misunderstanding about him, he's just insane.

Hope you guys enjoyed this!

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


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